How Nice Of J. Crew To Gift This Model With Thigh Gap Using Photoshop

An unsuspecting J.Crew bikiniÂ model is about to realize three inches on the insides of her legs have mysteriously disappeared without a trace. The item even has a photoshop tool in its name,Â “Blurred Floral Triangle Halter Top,”Â though I suspect this rather overzealous job was performed utilizing a more virtual X-ACTO blade given its sharp and slightly bumpy edges.

With advertisements for bikinis, and any clothing for that matter, we often see thin women running on the beach with giant grins (or at least posing sexily) and the message is always the same: if you buy this, you will look like a bikini model, thereby making you conventionally hot and attractive to onlookers. And it’s almost always wrong, because the vast majority of us are not bikini models (though I throw no shade to those of you who are, obvs). Adding in a whole other layer of “just pretend” to the ad makes it even more frustrating.

Just kidding, not really. Models are still human beings, and while most of us logicallyÂ knowÂ that the images we see do not necessarily reflect upon what that human being actually looks like, they are still supposed to be representative of what society sees as beautiful. And if even the teensy, tiny percentage of folks who can have careers as models (a whole other issue in and of itself) are given evenÂ moreÂ barely-attainable–if not wholly unattainable–features, then what’s even the point of having such a narrow selection pool?